‘Curb’ nom scrubbed

HBO skein not eligible for nomination

The Producers Guild of America has had to curb its enthusiasm for Larry David — and that’s good news for “Scrubs.”

The PGA announced last week that David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was one of five shows up for the guild’s annual comedy kudos. Turns out, however, that “Curb’s” most recent HBO season — which began Sept. 25 — wasn’t actually eligible for nomination.

The PGA’s eligibility period ran from Sept. 1, 2004, though Aug. 31, 2005, and since “Curb” didn’t air any original episodes in that frame, its nomination wasn’t valid.

It’s unclear just how “Curb” got on the list of eligible primetime series that the PGA sends out to members for selecting nominees. Guild execs couldn’t be reached for comment late Wednesday, but the PGA is expected to issue a release on the matter Thursday.

Once the guild realized “Curb” wasn’t eligible, the show with the sixth largest number of votes for nomination — “Scrubs” — took its place as one of the five nominees. PGA nom is the third for the show.

“Scrubs” creator-exec producer Bill Lawrence said he only found out about his nomination when he got a form letter informing him of the nomination. The producer of the Jan. 22 kudocast then called asking for clips.

“We thought it was a mistake,” Lawrence said. “It was very weird.”

Lawrence said a part of him is still worried that the PGA will somehow end up telling him “Scrubs” isn’t really nominated.

“I’m going to keep my mouth shut and show up in a tuxedo,” he said. “I’m hoping we win now because of the sympathy vote.”

With “Curb” out of the running, HBO’s overall PGA tally is down to seven, still more than any other network. NBC now has two noms, tied with Fox.